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David Rees And The Death Of The Exclamation Mark

by | 8th, March 2008

exclamation-mark.jpgDAVID Rees has a question: “What’s the maximum number of exclamation points you can post to your blog in one day?”

In Fleet Street the exclamation mark was known as “The Screamer!” It now lacks any power. Overused! And undervalued! LOL!!

The blog exclamation mark is the grammatical emoticon, those symbols that reveal the writer to be the sort of person who quotes scenes from films, eats their own bogies and has a Crazy Frog ringtone (and not just as one Anorak writer reserves for his wife).

Says Rees:

Between this and this and this, blogging could get insane this weekend. So I’m stockpiling exclamation points now.

[! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !]

I’d advise other bloggers to do the same, before the government makes it a crime to hoard punctuation marks.

The exclamation mark is used in place of humour (!), to alert the reader to the news that Pete! and Joan!!! are coming for dinner!!!! and they are bringing a lemon cake!!!!!

The effect is to dull the already duller than dull. The one useful purpose of the exclamation mark is to alert the reader to the fact that the person exclaiming is a pillock.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul Sorene



Posted: 8th, March 2008 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink